Category: Rugby

Rugby News

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Regan Grace’s long road back to rugby: two codes, four clubs and 979 days

The Welsh winger injured his achilles in 2022 while playing league for St Helens. He’s back – playing union for Cardiff

By No Helmets Required

Regan Grace’s career – and life, in many ways – changed on the last day of July 2022 in the final minute of a Super League game between St Helens and Salford. Returning the ball inside his own half in the dying seconds of a shock defeat for the league leaders, Grace collapsed on to his chest, untouched by another player. His left achilles had ruptured. His St Helens career was over, having scored 300 points from 75 tries in 128 Super League games.

Three years later, he’s been at four clubs in three countries and two rugby codes. No wonder he’s not the player he was. Yet. But last Saturday night in the Italian city of Treviso, he completed a competitive rugby match for the first time in 979 days. The last time Grace had completed a game, in July 2022, his try helped St Helens come from behind to beat Wakefield by a single point. This time, Cardiff let a lead slip and lost by a point in Treviso. But there was more at stake for Grace than the result.

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Former Wallabies star Jordan Petaia signs NFL deal with LA Chargers

  • Ex-rugby union player impresses Chargers at IPP trial in US
  • ‘A great career move for him,’ says Super Bowl winner Jordan Mailata

Former rugby union international Jordan Petaia is a step closer to realising a long-held dream of playing in the NFL after signing with the Los Angeles Chargers as a tight end.

Petaia, who earned 31 caps for the Wallabies, turned his back on union late last year after being handed a prized spot on the league’s international player pathway (IPP) programme.

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Lions set to face Japan-based All Blacks in Anzac clash but Folau’s hopes over

  • Invitational Australia & New Zealand side to play in July
  • Players who have switched nationality will not be eligible

The British & Irish Lions are set to face a number of former All Blacks with Rugby Australia’s chief executive, Phil Waugh, confident players based in Japan can be recruited for the Anzac fixture in July. Waugh also confirmed that players who have represented Australia and New Zealand but subsequently switched nationality will not be considered, ending Israel Folau’s hopes of appearing in another Lions series and ruling out Charles Piutau.

The Lions will lock horns with an invitational Australia and New Zealand side for the first time since 1989. When the fixture was announced in 2023, the then Australia head coach, Eddie Jones, turned his nose up, saying: “I don’t want to be involved with the Kiwis.” With the former All Blacks head coach Ian Foster leading the combined side, Waugh believes the fixture in Adelaide will have star appeal.

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MPs deliver warning over DCMS chase to recoup tens of millions in Covid loans

  • Loans scrutinised by public accounts committee
  • ‘Gap in oversight’ over £123.8m paid to rugby teams

There remains a “high degree of uncertainty” over whether tens of millions of pounds paid to rugby union clubs and other sports teams during the Covid-19 pandemic will ever be repaid, the House of Commons’ public accounts committee has warned.

In a report published on Wednesday, the committee also criticised the Department for Culture, Media and Sport for being “overly optimistic” in believing it will recover most of the £474m it paid out to 120 organisations in the sport and culture sectors to help them survive the impact of the pandemic.

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New Zealand Rugby and Ineos settle sponsorship contract dispute

  • NZR had launched legal action over missed payment
  • Details of settlement to remain confidential

The Manchester United co-owner Ineos and New Zealand Rugby have announced a settlement has been reached in their sponsorship contract dispute.

In February NZR, the federation responsible for the All Blacks team, said it had launched legal action against Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s Ineos after accusing the chemicals firm of failing to pay the first 2025 instalment of a six-year deal. Ineos at the time said it had looked to “adjust” its sponsorship, with it having to implement “cost-saving measures” due the impact of “high energy costs and extreme carbon taxes” on its European businesses.

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Warrington beat Leeds in fitting thriller for Super League’s 5,000th game

  • Warrington 16-14 Leeds
  • Visitors squander eight-point lead in second half

Almost 29 years to the day since Super League kicked off in Paris amid a flurry of excitement and hysteria, two teams with very different histories in the competition’s biggest games delivered a thriller for the 5,000th match in the history of the league.

The early evidence is still unclear on whether or not Warrington can claim a first Super League title – and first league title since 1955 – this year, or whether Leeds can add to the eight Grand Finals they already have. But they certainly showed enough between them to suggest they will be in the mix when the pressure is on come September and the scramble for Old Trafford reaches boiling point.

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Richard Wigglesworth: ‘I’ll be honest … and think of nothing but the Lions’

Newly selected British & Irish Lions assistant on his journey as a coach, picking Steve Borthwick’s brain and Andy Farrell breaking the news

Richard Wigglesworth was in the garden with his five-year-old daughter, two days after England’s thumping win over Wales, when the phone rang. It was Andy Farrell and as much as Margot was not happy that her father was on the phone, it was a call he had to take. England’s storming finish to the Six Nations may not be the only reason Wigglesworth has been seconded to the British & Irish Lions but it can only have helped, and so the 41-year-old completes Farrell’s lineup, the first England coach to do so since Steve Borthwick in 2017.

It is easy to forget that more than two years ago, Wigglesworth was still playing for Leicester Tigers. He was a player-coach when Borthwick got the call from England in December 2022 and as a result, Wigglesworth immediately hung up his boots and took interim charge at Welford Road.

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Oasis promoter behind rugby league’s Ashes series return to England

  • Warrington owner Simon Moran instrumental in decision
  • Bramley-Moore Dock, Wembley and Headingley to host

The music promoter backing this summer’s Oasis reunion will be a major figure behind rugby league’s Ashes returning to England for the first time since 2003. The venues and dates for the three-Test series were confirmed on Wednesday.

England will face Australia, the world champions, in Tests at ­Wembley, Everton’s new home at Bramley-Moore Dock and Leeds ­Rhinos’ Headingley on consecutive Saturdays: 25 October, 1 November and 8 November. All three games will kick-off at 2.30 and be live on the BBC.

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Jones wants Wales to “go for it” against England

Hannah Jones

Hannah Jones has a simple message for her Wales team ahead of Round 2 of the Guinness Women’s Six Nations against England at Principality Stadium – “we’ve got nothing to lose, so let’s go for it.” The Red Roses will make their debut at the home of Welsh rugby seeking to build on their 38-5 […]

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Unions unite to strengthen women’s game

Wales Women

With less than six months to go until Women’s Rugby World Cup 2025, all four Home Unions – RFU, WRU, Scottish Rugby, IRFU – are continuing to work together to grow the women and girls’ game, thanks to the Impact ’25 programme and UK Sport. Backed by UK Sport funding, this international collaboration between the […]

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Rabbitohs’ 80-year-old bunny mascot issues apology over child pushing incident

  • ‘Nothing like this will ever happen again,’ says Charlie Gallico
  • Much-loved retired panelbeater filmed shoving nine-year-old

South Sydney’s mascot has apologised for pushing a child during an NRL match against the Cronulla Sharks. Charlie Gallico, while dressed as mascot Reggie Rabbit, was filmed shoving a nine-year-old boy while moving through the players’ tunnel at Sharks Stadium during their round three fixture.

Gallico, 81, issued an apology on Tuesday following an investigation by the club into a complaint made by the child’s mother Caroline Agius.

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Pontypool boost top four chances with big win over Quins in SRC

Pontypool boosted their hopes of a top four finish in Super Rugby Cymru with a comprehensive 42-17 victory over Carmarthen Quins. Holding a narrow 18-17 lead at half time, having been outscored three tries to two in the first half, Pooler then ran in four tries, scoring 24 unanswered points in the second to down […]

The post Pontypool boost top four chances with big win over Quins in SRC appeared first on Welsh Rugby Union | Wales & Regions.